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"[Science fiction is] anything that turns you and your social context, the social you, inside out."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Cyborg | ||
| A combination of a human being (at least the thinking part) and a machine. |
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress contains a number of references to cyborgs; the best way to see what he meant by it is to look through them.
| Being kissed by Wyoming Knott is more definite than being married to most women. Had I been Mike all my lights would have flashed at once. I felt like a Cyborg with pleasure center switched on...
There was a solar storm warning but the pilot thought he could make it – or didn't care; he was a Cyborg... "Man, I saw one disturbing report. It was claimed that attempts are being made at the University of Peiping to combine computers with human brains to achieve massive capacity. A computing Cyborg." "Here we are, two million males, less than one million females. A physical fact, basic as rock or vacuum. Then add idea of tanstaafl. When thing is scarce, price goes up. Women are scarce; aren't enough to go around – that makes them most valuable thing in Luna, more precious than ice or air, as men without women don't care whether they stay alive or not. Except a Cyborg, if you regard him as a man, which I don't."
"Excuse me but isn't there an exceptionally fine computer at Peiping University?" |
| From The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by GP Putnam in 1966 Additional resources -
|
I've read elsewhere on the Internet (must be true, nyet?) that the term "cyborg" is a contraction of the phrase "cybernetic organism" and was coined in 1960 by a Dr. Manfred Clynes for a NASA conference.
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'The world ... is drenched in unfamiliar information all the way to the horizon.'
'He saw one hiss by him as he rounded the corner, trailing a short whip antenna...'
'It may be organic damage. It may be permanent. Time'll tell, and only after you are off Substance D for a long while.'
It's the polite thing to do, and has been the polite thing to do for about four generations.
